Titles, titles everywhere

Today’s topic is: How do you come up with your titles?

Oh boy. I’m pretty terrible at titles. My completed manuscript is titled FOUR STONES because, well, there are four stones that play an integral role in my book. Awe-inspiring levels of creativity, I know. For the longest time, the manuscript was titled ASHES as a play on “ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” since my book also focuses on a group of immortals (of the non-vampiric variety). But then I discovered there are no less than eleventy billion books already published with the title ASHES, so that was out. I’ve since come up with a handful of alternate titles to replace FOUR STONES, but I’ve been shot down every time. So FOUR STONES is staying!

I do have another manuscript I’m working on, and I have to say that I’m really very fond of the title. The entire project is staying top secret for now, but I will say that the title is borrowed from a song (which seems to be where a lot of us get our titles from)!

What about you? How did you come up with your titles?